Speeches by Yang.

“ You talked about the challenge of having effective powers. My understanding is that the Taxes Management Act gives you the power to collect information relating to the enforcement of the current tax system but not to collect information that would help to inform future changes to the tax system. That might explai…”

“ According to law.”

“ After that review, was there a change to the way that you can proactively identify future data needs, or is it simply on a case-by-case basis? How is that now managed?”

“ Legally speaking, for you to have the power to collect the kind of data that you are speaking about, in real time, and any more practical data that you might need over the course of the next Parliament, is that a change that needs to be made in law, or is it something that can be done through a kind of agreement …”

“ You talk about the timeline of getting the data in, and, of course, we all know how time-pressured the Budget cycle can be. Do you ever receive policy suggestions that you feel you cannot cost or develop fully in the timeline of one Budget cycle? If so, what happens to those suggestions? Is there an agenda for wo…”

“ Do you ever get timed out by that process—as in, there are policies that are suggested but, because of the lack of data that you have, you cannot really do anything about it in the timespan?”

“ On assets held offshore, are you able to look at assets in other people’s names—for example, in the names of trusts or shell companies—or are you looking at only the specific people being considered in money laundering investigations?”

“ So that tax gap review includes assets held in other people’s names offshore?”

“I would like to transport us to the overseas territories and Crown dependencies, figuratively speaking. I note the Joint Ministerial Council communique from a few days ago, which describes addressing the sanctions vulnerabilities across the overseas territories and improving sanctions co-operation between the UK and th…”

“Mr Thomson, what do you see as the highest-risk areas or regions, particularly in terms of circumventing UK sanctions?”

“To get a sense of that term, what would count as low value?”

“I very much commend the Secretary of State for the youth guarantee. In my constituency, many businesses have invested in the hi-tech industries of the future. However, I speak to young people and their families who are concerned about those young people getting jobs on the first rung of the ladder. This year, there wil…”

“Would you say, then, that, for the majority of cases that do not go to further action, that is because of self-reporting or because you have arrived at a case that is not severe or important enough to warrant that, or is it because of a lack of tools to implement the further action?”

“The majority of cases you are investigating do not then go on to enforcement. Does that come from cases being reported that are not severe enough or an over-reporting, if you like? What do you think would be ways to reduce that ratio, if possible?”

“What are the annual numbers for moderate or severe breaches that you do investigate? What about the breaches that do not get to that investigation level?”

“John referred to this perception of a lack of action. There is a lot of action that goes on within the Office that the average viewer of this session might not know about. Mr Thomson, I was wondering if you could describe how you make the decision whether to publicise breaches when they occur.”

“Is the concern that, if the number is small, people might then think, “I can get away with this”, and therefore not report it?”

“To clarify, is the NCA’s concern, in your understanding, that, if they were to report the number of annual cases passed to law enforcement, the number would be too small to serve as a deterrent?”

“I was wondering if different standards applied to that level of transparency in different cases. For example, the NCA does report the number of suspicious activity reports it receives relating to sanctions. You might consider that that might be seen as too big or too small. It is very difficult to understand how to jud…”

“I have one last question on data reporting. Mr Thomson, earlier this morning you said that there was no publication of the number of cases referred to crime enforcement, because the NCA was not willing for you to make that publication. I was wondering if you could go a bit more into what they see as the risks of public…”